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Tuscany Tag

NEWS FROM FATTORIA DEL COLLE

Camera dei Vignaioli, restoration of the panoramic swimming pool, starry sky for wedding dinners … many small things to add charm to  Fattoria del Colle

 

Piscina panoramica prima del restauro Fattoria del Colle

Panoramic swimming pool before the restoration Fattoria del Colle

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

In truth, the Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, in the most beautiful Tuscan countryside, is loved because it hasn’t changed, because those who come back after twenty years find their memories …. However, updates are essential to keep alive a small hamlet  with four hundred years of history. And here is the news for 2023.

 

CAMERA DEI VIGNAIOLI

The Vignaioli room is located on the ground floor in the building formerly called Podere Ginestreto and built over two hundred years ago. Externally it has two large brick arches over the lane which crosses the Fattoria del Colle and is now used for outdoor seating. Presumably in the past it was a stable or a warehouse for carts, plows and other agricultural implements. More recently it has been used as a canteen for the winemakers who cultivate the most precious things on the farm: the Sangiovese vines. This is why it is called the Grape growers’ room. It is furnished with a small sofa, a chest of drawers and an authentic antique wardrobe that give a lived-in feel to this room, restored in 2023 and equipped with air conditioning and Wi-Fi.

As is well known, Tuscany protects historic buildings and landscapes. For this reason, the restoration of the Camera Vignaioli was a real puzzle and only after many attempts did the definitive project arrive. One of the arches was reduced (the other had already been closed in the past) using ancient bricks and this made it possible to create an entrance to the bedroom and bathroom. The result seems very trendy with the shower cubicle separated from the bathroom, but, in reality, it derives from the need to respect the existing volumes.

Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2018 Bio directly on your doorstep

From the cellar of Montalcino, directly to your door a Rosso di Montalcino BIO preview. Special price for #iobevoacasa #iorestoacasa

Stay at home, we will deliver an extraordinary wine, our first Rosso di Montalcino organic. It’s a preview, for this, we ask you to make special the moment you bring it to the table. Take a picture and post it with the tags #donatellacinellicolombini #iobevoacasa #iorestoacasa. This will help us to become more united and stronger in this moment sharing a beautiful experience.

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 BIO di Donatella Cinelli Colombni #iobevoacasa #iostappoacasa

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 BIO di Donatella Cinelli Colombini  #Idrinkathome #iobevoacasa #iostappoacasa

6 BOTTLES OF RED MONTALCINO 2018 BIO

You will receive a box of 6 bottles of 0.75 Cl directly at your front door. Now more than ever is the time to stay in our homes but without renouncing to the plesure of great wines to be enjoyed with the family, to bring to the table a sign of hope and love for life. Come on, everything will be fine!
Offer valid until 30 March 2020
Special price of € 97,00 (+ shipping in Italy of 16€) instead of € 108,00.
ONLY FOR DONATELLA CLUB MEMBERS Free shipping in Italy and discount of € 10.00 on transport costs abroad
Payment by bank transfer or credit card Visa or Mastercard
To order wine, write an email to vino@cinellicolombini.it or call 0039 0577 662108


I PRESENT YOU ROSSO DI MONTALCINO DOC 2018 BIO

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 BIO di Donatella Cinelli Colombini #iostappoacasa

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 BIO di Donatella Cinelli Colombini  #Idrinkathome #iostappoacasa

Produced entirely with Sangiovese grapes from the same vineyards with wich Brunello is produced, in the territory of Montalcino, considered the best in the world for the cultivation of this historic grape.
We love our land and that is why from 2018 all our wines will have on their label the BIO ( organic) symbol of the green leaf, synonymous of attention and respect for nature!

THE WINERY CASATO PRIME DONNE IN MONTALCINO

Rosso di Montalcino is a family wine produced by Casato Prime Donne, which for over 400 years belonged to the family of Donatella Cinelli Colombini. The winery is the first in Italy with an only female staff and currently employes 3 enologists, the senior, Barbara and two young ones, Sabrina and Giada. This shows a huge commitment in achieving ever higher quality. In addition, there is the project to bring Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino back to their original characteristics from 1970-1980: elegance, freshness and drinkability.
This is a young but important wine, which often scores over 90/100 by the wine critics of the leading foreign specialized press.

LET’S TASTE TOGETHER ROSSO DI MONTALCINO 2018

Rosso Montalcino 2018 Biologico

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 Cinelli Colombini

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 is a small masterpiece able to excite those who drink it: rich in intriguing scents such as cherry, raspberries with floral notes of violet. It is a harmonious wine with silky tannins, well balanced with a nice structure thanks to the months of aging in French oak.

Cardi rifatti(thistles) ancient Tuscan recipe

Tuscany is known for its long cooking recipes that in the peasant tradition become a triumph of flavor and sauces. The recooked thistles are the best. Cardi rifatti for you

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

ingredienti: cardi, uova, pomodoro, farina, sale, olio, aglio

Thistles eggs tomatoes flour salt oil garlic

Some vegetables are cooked three times: boiled, fried and recooked in tomato. In the end, even cauliflower, which is normally not very tasty, becomes a king’s treat.
In Montalcino, one of the most delicious recipes is made with the same three cooking and traditionally solemn lunch of August: rooster stewed with recooked celery .
Here I describe a winter version based on thistles that brings to the table the intense taste of the Tuscan tradition and can be served as a side dish of a roast or alone.

TREQUANDA SOUP

The bread soup, the most classic of Tuscan recipes changes in every village but in Trequanda, near Fattoria del Colle, is special

zuppa di fagioli di Montalcino



Typically the soup of Tuscan bread is a very tasty vegetable soup poured on the bread. It is therefore vegan. Only the ciancifricola and Easter soup contain also the egg.
There is however one exception: in Trequanda. The recipe book of the small medieval village near Fattoria del Colle there are two bread soups with pork. The soup with the paw and the trequandina soup.
Below I transcribe the recipe that I received from the housewives of Trequanda and that was illustrated by Silvia Argilli with extraordinary skill. Silvia is one of the young polyglots who welcome tourists in the farm house of Fattoria del Colle but has a past as a painter and illustrator.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Rosso di Montalcino 2018

Rosso Montalcino 2018 Biologico

Rosso di Montalcino 2018 Cinelli Colombini

The first Organic Rosso di Montalcino of Casato Prime Donne, the Montalcino winery of  Donatella Cinelli Colombini puts the green leaf on the label

Story of the 2018 Rosso di Montalcino vintage

The 2018 harvest has given wines rich in aromas thanks to the strong difference in temperature between night and the day, in September, consequently during the last stage of maturation.
That of 2018 was a harvest with few grapes and required real courage to wait to harvest after the grape skins had softened and so becoming able to yield to the must the noble substances: the polyphenols.

In fact, in 2018 the weather forecast promised rain and hail. If the storms had really arrived, they would have ruined the bunches. Donatella and her winemakers have bet on the sun and thus faced the challenge by taking into the cellar only wonderful grapes.

Novelty in 2018

For the first time, in 2018, we have resumed an ancient habit of the Montalcino winemakers, the grapes have been selected in the vineyard by harvesting only those with the same level of ripening. This allowed to vinify in each vat grapes with homogeneous characters. Obviously the work of the winemakers has become slower and they have returned more than once in the same vineyards always choosing the grapes.
Above all the advantage of this type of selective harvesting is to have the perfect grapes for both Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino.

Pan lavato (washed bread) soup that enhances the new olive oil.

Washed bread, slices, cabbage with slices, different names for the simplest bread soup in Tuscany, the one that best enhances the EVO oil just made. Pan lavato

 

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

pan-lavato-Fattoria-del-Colle-Toscana

pan-lavato-Fattoria-del-Colle-Toscana

The name of this dish changes from village to village but the recipe changes very  little. It is a delicious traditional bread soup with cabbage from southern Tuscany, typical of the winter time . In Montalcino we call it washed bread, in Trequanda, where the Fattoria del Colle is located, they call it slices or cabbage with slices.
More than with any other dish you can appreciate the freshly pressed extra virgin oil , especially what is made from olives with a full taste and fragrant scent.
Consequently like all very simple recipes the quality of the result depends on the ingredients that must be extraordinary, the cabbage obviously but mostly the  EVO oil, the vinegar and especially the bread, rigorously without salt and handmade with sourdough.
The most suitable wine to accompany this soup is a Chianti Superiore or a Doc Orcia that come from the  same territory as the oil that, in our case, is from Trequanda where the Fattoria del Colle is located.

Very small selection of extraordinary Vin Santo

A very small selection of extraordinary Vin Santo

Just 350 small bottles of Vin Santo del Chianti 2007 produced by Fattoria del Colle with artisan care. A very very small selection of extraordinary Vin Santo

 

Jewels for true enthusiasts who, with the previous vintage, have obtained prestigious international awards such as 95/100 by Robert Parker/ Wine advocate.
The Vin Santo DOC Chianti is the most prestigious and successful result of the project on dessert wines wanted by Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s husband, Carlo Gardini. Donatella does not drink sweet wines and had strongly reduced their production at Fattoria del Colle although this winery, located in the south of Chianti, had a centuries-old tradition of Vin Santo. Carlo is instead a fan of sweet whites and has dedicated time and energy to create small selections of signature wine handcrafted in detail. It includes the Passito, the Vin Santo and the prestigious Vin Santo selection we are talking about.

Vin Santo del Chianti 2008 Fattoria del Colle

Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents her Vin Santo del Chianti 2008 Fattoria del Colle aged in caratelli for eleven years .

A small selection of very few bottles for lovers of sweet wines

First of all Vin Santo is part of the history of Tuscany. In ancient times all the noble families had caratelli (small barrels) in which the Vin Santo aged in the attic of their Villas. Vin Santo was always served at important banquets .
We do not know when the production of this sweet golden and refined wine was born, it surely existed already in Siena in the fourteenth century. But it was precisely during a banquet that the Vin Santo ceased to be called “vino pretto” that means pure and took on its present name.

The legend

According to legend, this happened in 1439 after the Council of Florence. That meeting was attended by the Greek Cardinal Giovanni Bessarione who, tasting it, exclaimed “this is the wine of Xantos! ” in reference to the island where sweet wines were produced at the time particularly appreciated. Hence, since then xantos wine became  Vin Santo and the name  remained to indicate the delicious Tuscan nectar.

Fattoria del Colle too, has its vinsantaia, it is  in the attic of the sixteenth-century villa. So, crossing the winery and climbing a staircase you can reach the attic where in winter it is very cold and in summer it is very hot. Here are the small barrels  in which the golden liquid, squeezed from the dried grapes, remains to ripen for over ten years.
Last year the Vin Santo del Chianti of Fattoria del Colle received 93/100 from Robert Parker/Wine advocate. A success that we hope will be repeated in the future.
We recommend not to dip cookies in Vin Santo. It is a popular practice very widespread in Tuscany but absolutely harmful because it alters the aroma and taste of the wine.

A tour in a winery in Tuscany to discover traditions

I would have never thought that some of the old traditions I have discovered during my working experience at Fattoria del Colle were the same I already knew and grew up with. It has simply been a rediscovery. I was born in Chiusi, a small village located on the border between Tuscany and Umbria, south of Siena. It is an old town with Etruscan origins surrounded by countryside and small lakes. I have always wished to leave the countryside, and sometimes I did, to look for different spaces, different ways of living and views. Always very nice! [caption id="attachment_7467" align="alignleft" width="298" caption="the kitchen...

Grape harvest weekend in Tuscany

Take part to the grape harvest of Brunello wine and Chianti in the vineyards, in the cellar and sit at the table of Donatella Cinelli Colombini restaurant [caption id="attachment_7225" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="grape harvest at Fattoria del Colle"][/caption] An unique experience to discover how the great tuscan red wines such as Brunello, Chianti Superiore and Doc Orcia are  produced. You will meet new friends, you will sleep in the houses of the ancient farmers and you will live a funny day between vineyards and cellars during the grape harvest with technical wine tasting and tasty dishes from Crete Senesi and Val d'Orcia. Sunday, before...

The Swiss people, Pine Nuts and the Mantovana cake

As I was driving along the road, a few miles away from the Fattoria dalla Colle, I saw two children and a very tall man who were searching for pine nuts under a tree alongside the road. I said to myself  “How strange! It is years since I have seen children searching for pine nuts like that”. Then I noticed that the car had a Swiss number plate and then I understood. In the  Swiss Alps you cannot  easily collect edible pine nuts from the trees so for this family searching for pine nuts is like the equivalent of us Tuscans being excited about being able to pick bananas straight from the trees in Egypt.  It is a totally new experience.

I kept pondering and reflecting about this image and after a while it occurred to me how much growing up as a child in Tuscany has changed since I was young, even in the most simple little things such as this. Today there are so many video games and other distractions which encourage  children to  play insided, away from the Natural environment which surrounds them.

Before it wasn’t like that. In the Summer when I was a child I used to spent the entire afternoon with my friends collecting  pine nuts and then crushing them on the wall. As a child I was almost addicted to the consumption of these pine nuts. My grandmother was so worried about how many I ate that she made someone  cut down all the pine trees and made them take them away. Luckily after a few years I forgot all about them.